This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application entitled Stabilizing Circuit for Interfacing Device earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Jun. 15, 1998, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 98-22268, a copy of which is annexed hereto.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a circuit for stabilizing interfacing devices, and more particularly to a stabilization circuit for preventing a bus interfacing device from being damaged due to a reverse current provided from peripheral equipment.
2. Related Art
An interfacing device can be used to couple a computer system with peripheral equipment. Background information regarding computer systems is as follows. Computer systems are information handling systems that are utilized by many individuals and businesses today. A computer system can be defined as a microcomputer that includes a central processing unit (CPU), a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM), a display monitor, a keyboard, a mouse or other input device such as a trackball, a floppy diskette drive, a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) drive, a modem, and a hard disk storage device. A computer system""s main board, which is a printed circuit board known as a motherboard, can be used to electrically connect these components together. A computer system can be a desktop computer, a personal computer, a portable computer such as a notebook computer or palm-sized computer, or other type of computer.
A computer system can be coupled to peripheral equipment such as a printer, a scanner, a camera, and other units. An interfacing device can be used to couple a printer and scanner to a central processing unit of a computer system.
For example, an interfacing device can receive data from a central processing unit, convert the data from a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) format to an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 1394 format, and then transmit the converted data to peripheral equipment. Or an interfacing device can receive data from peripheral equipment, convert the data from an IEEE 1394 format to a PCI format, and then transmit the converted data to the central processing unit.
I have found that a damaged interfacing device, a damaged computer system, and damaged peripheral equipment can be extremely inconvenient. Efforts have been made to improve interfacing devices.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,431 for Circuit And Method of Operation to Control In-Rush Current From a Power Supply to Peripheral Devices in an Information System issued to Rutigliano, U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,647 for Error Recovery by Isolation of Peripheral Components in a Data Processing System issued to Buckland et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,426 for Method for Interfacing to a Powered Bus issued to Bedingfield et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,284 for Method and Device for the Protection of a Series Bus Against Short Circuits issued to Le Van Suu, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,766 for Systems for Inhibiting Errors Caused by Memory Cartridge Insertion/Removal Using an Idle Loop issued to Dhopeshwarkar et al.
While these recent efforts provide advantages, I note that they fail to adequately provide a stabilizing circuit for interfacing device.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a stabilization circuit for resetting a halted bus interfacing device in no relation to the operation of the computer system, and preventing the bus interfacing device from being damaged due to a reverse current provided from the peripheral equipment.
In one aspect of the present invention, the interfacing circuit is comprised of: a port unit including at least one or more ports and being coupled to peripheral equipment which provides the power and data; an interfacing unit interfacing the system and the peripheral equipment; and a switching unit switching the power which is provided to the peripheral equipment through the port unit in order to reset the peripheral equipment. The interfacing unit is comprised of a link layer controller and physical layer arbiter, and further comprised of a resetting unit resetting the link layer controller, and an indicating unit indicating the state of the power which is provided from a power regulator to the physical layer arbiter and the operation state of the physical layer arbiter.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an electronic apparatus, comprising: at least one external device performing first data processing functions; a port unit being coupled to said at least one external device, conveying power to said at least one external device; a control unit performing second data processing functions; an interface unit being coupled to said control unit, said interface unit conveying the power to said port unit from said control unit; a reset unit being coupled to said interface unit and said control unit, said reset unit selectively resetting said interface unit; and a switch unit being coupled to said port unit and said interface unit, said switch unit switching on to convey power between said interface unit and said port unit, said switch unit switching off to not convey power between said interface unit and said port unit.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an electronic apparatus, comprising: a port unit having a switch and having a plurality of ports including a first port, said first port being coupled to at least one external device performing first data processing functions, said port unit conveying power to said at least one external device, said port unit switching on to convey power between said interface unit and said at least one external device, said port unit switching off to not convey power between said interface unit and said at least one external device; a control unit performing second data processing functions; an interface unit conveying the power to said port unit from said control unit; a reset unit being coupled to said interface unit and said control unit, said reset unit resetting said interface unit in response to a control signal received from said control unit; said interface unit further comprising: a physical link unit including a reset terminal receiving from said reset unit a reset signal resetting said physical link unit, said physical link unit converting data formats and arbitrating among information received from said port unit; a power regulator providing power to said physical link unit; and an indicating unit indicating a state of the power provided from said power regulator to said physical link unit and indicating an operation state of said physical link unit.
The present invention is more specifically described in the following paragraphs by reference to the drawings attached only by way of example. Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.